The seasoned internet entrepreneur trio was backed by technology investor heavyweights Nextec, Roger Allen of Allen and Buckeridge and Peter James, former CEO of Adcorp and current managing director of cloud computing provider Ninefold.

Washington-based, LivingSocial, is viewed as a cashed up consolidator of the prolific group-buying sector now operating in 25 countries and boasting 10 million subscribers to its discount shopping service.

After surveying the early days of the buoyant Australian market, it swooped on the nascent company taking a 31 per cent stake for $5 million in November 2010 as a placeholder for an outright acquisition.

Senior executives from LivingSocial returned to Sydney last December to sweep up the remainder of Jump On It, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of LivingSocial. An announcenment on the acquisition is understood to be imminent.

Neither party would confirm the final sale price but sources close to the deal said that the founders and original investors were delighted with the outcome which they suggested was in excess of the Yahoo!7's acquisition of group-buying site Spreets for a rumoured $30-$40 million.

LivingSocial's Washington-based director of corporate communications, Brendan Lewis, confirmed the acquisition and said Jump On It had been an "integral part of Living Social’s growth in Australia so far.

"We are very happy with what we see as a vibrant business and we look forward to giving them the tools to continue with innovation and market leadership downunder.”

Lewis said that in looking for assets to acquire the group looked for companies that had "a great team, great employees, really good potential for growth and good cultural fits.”

The Jump On It brand will continue to operate in tandem with LivingSocial and Lewis confirmed that there would be no redundancies as part of the acquisition.

Rigby will now be executive general manager of LivingSocial Australia and New Zealand. Fabig, a transcendental meditation devotee and ex-pat South African, has taken the role of chairman and will continue to serve as a senior adviser to the company.

“There are many fantastic opportunities yet to be explored in the group buying sector, and I am thrilled to be taking the lead on LivingSocial’s positioning in the market in Australia and New Zealand,” Rigby said.

When Jump On It launched, it utilised the power of social media recommendations through Facebook pages branded ‘I love Sydney’, ‘I love Melbourne’ in each capital city to offer its members deals on local goods and services. Those fan pages, which within months built a network of around 450,000 members, were used as the basis to crowdsource the services and deals they offer on the site.

Jump On It claims that it is about ten times ahead of its competitors in terms of social media engagement. The group has in excess 1.2 million subscribers daily and 580,000 Facebook members.

UPDATE: Following confirmation from LivingSocial that co-founder James Gilbert would remain commercial director with the company, Jump On It representatives said today Gilbert has resigned to pursue "other high-growth internet opportunities".